Congratulations to the EnergyTech UP 2024 winners! This page is now an archive of the 2024 competition. To view details about EnergyTech UP 2025, follow the competition's new HeroX page.
Overview
Sponsored by the Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the American-Made EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP) is a competition where student teams compete for cash prizes for successfully identifying a promising energy technology, assessing its market potential, and creating a business plan for commercialization.
This year, the competition expanded to include both a student and faculty track. The objectives of each are outlined below.
Students: Throughout the competition, students developed and presented a business plan that leveraged National Laboratory-developed or other emerging energy technologies developed by students, faculty, or industry. Students received mentorship and materials to help them succeed, all while competing for part of $450,000 in cash prizes.
Faculty: New to the 2024 round, EnergyTech UP offered the ability for faculty to compete in their own track. Faculty competitors developed and implemented educational activities to engage more students in energy technology commercialization and entrepreneurship topics at their institution. While faculty have always been, and remain, welcome and encouraged to mentor a team competing in EnergyTech UP, this new track was designed to incentivize and support faculty directly, with a total of $100,000 in cash prizes awarded throughout the competition.
About the Prize
This prize is sponsored by DOE’s OTT, as well as several other program offices. EnergyTech UP, in partnership with American-Made Challenges, is designed to be approachable, equitable, and scalable nationwide. Winners were chosen based on the strength of their business proposals. Participating students were provided a curated list of National Lab technologies that were seeking commercialization and could be used for their business plan.
Prize Structure for Student Competitors
This year, student teams competed for $450,000 in cash prizes as they explored business opportunities for lab-developed or other high-potential energy technologies, assessed commercialization opportunities through market analysis, and presented a viable business plan to industry judges.
Understanding that energy is often inherently local, competitor teams first presented at their designated regional events in February 2024, where regional finalists were identified. Then, teams that were invited to participate in the regional events received free access to OTT’s Energy I-Corps curriculum. Finalists were provided exclusive mentorship to help students refine their ideas throughout February and March.
Finally, the finalists pitched their complete business plan as part of Zpryme’s 2024 Energy Thought Summit in Austin, Texas on April 15, 2024. In addition to the national 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes, which made up a cumulative $80,000 of the total prize pool, 13 student teams took home bonus prizes—and $22,000 in cash each. The bonus prizes were supported by the following DOE offices:
Office of Technology Transitions (Undergraduate-Only and National Lab IP Bonus Prizes)
Building Technologies Office
Geothermal Technologies Office
Hydrogen Fuel Technologies Office
Office of Electricity
Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management
Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains
Office of Nuclear Energy
Solar Energy Technologies Office
Water Power Technologies Office
Prize Structure for Faculty Competitors
The faculty track was designed for educators who may benefit from mentorship and resources to create an implementation plan for their blossoming ideas for integrating or expanding energy technology commercialization or entrepreneurship activities at their home institution.
Faculty (or faculty teams) competed for part of the $100,000 prize pool in the “Explore” and “Implementation” phases of the competition. Throughout the competition, faculty developed proposals to expand energy technology commercialization or entrepreneurship activities at their home institution; received access to a DOE mentor and DOE resources; and worked toward showing how their plans could be integrated into student activities.
Congratulations to the three faculty winners and five runners-up in the inaugural EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP) Faculty Track! First-, second-, and third-place winners were awarded $25,000, $15,000, and $10,000, respectively. Additionally, five faculty runners-up were awarded $2,000 each.
The EnergyTech UP Faculty Track supported faculty members at collegiate institutions as they explored, developed, and implemented educational activities to engage more students in energy technology commercialization and entrepreneurship at their institution. The track offered $100,000 in cash prizes throughout its three phases.
Congratulations to our EnergyTech UP 2024 Faculty Track winners!
First Place, earning $25,000: Maryam Younessi Sinaki, PhD, Cleveland State University (Cleveland, OH)
Second Place, earning $15,000: Brien Walton, J.D. Ed.D., Husson University (Bangor, ME)
Third Place, earning $10,000: Kassandra McQuillen, J.D., Texas Tech University (Lubbock, TX)
Additionally, we congratulate the five Faculty Track runners-up, earning $2,000 each (organized alphabetically by last name):
Derek Abrams, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Edinburg, TX)
Mohammad Biswas, University of Texas at Tyler (Tyler, TX)
Gary Koenig, the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)
Dawen Li, The University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL)
Irene Reizman, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Terre Haute, IN)
EnergyTech UP is a collegiate competition for both students and faculty, aimed at growing clean energy entrepreneurship. The Office of Technology Transition has announced the upcoming launch of EnergyTech UP 2025, which will again offer students and faculty members cash prizes for their efforts in energy entrepreneurship.
The 2025 program will open in fall 2024 and both tracks will begin competing in early 2025. Follow EnergyTech UP on HeroX for updates on the 2025 competition.
Congratulations to the student winners of the EnergyTech University Prize 2024! The announcement was made on April 15 at the conclusion of the National Pitch Event during Zpryme’s Energy Thought Summit in Austin, Texas.
During the event, the 28 finalist teams pitched their business plans to a panel of industry judges. At the conclusion of the event, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions announced the three National Winners and 13 Bonus Prize Winners.
First Place, awarded $50,000: Team Rise Reforming from The University of Chicago
Entry: Rise Reforming
Second Place, awarded $20,000: Team ProPika from the University of Arkansas
Entry: Biomass to Jet Fuel
Third Place, awarded $10,000: Team Ion Clean PV from Hawai’i Pacific University
In addition, 13 teams took home bonus prizes—and $22,000 in cash each—in the following categories.
Office of Technology Transitions
Undergraduate-Only Winner: Team GarboCarbo from theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Harvard University, and the University of California, Berkeley
Entry: GarboCarbo: Cleaning Paper & Construction Sectors
National Lab IP Licensing: Team EcoGrains from the University of Notre Dame
Team HeatVault from the Georgia Institute of Technology
Entry: HeatVault: Heat Recovery as a Service
Geothermal Technologies Office
Team Geo@MIT from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Entry: Advanced GDHC/Thermal Storage Systems at Colleges
Hydrogen Fuel Technologies Office
Team ECHO Solutions from theUniversity of Houston
Entry: Electrochemical Carbon and Hydrogen from the Ocean
Office of Electricity
Team FlowCellutions from theUniversity of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University
Entry: Flow Battery Diagnostics for Energy Reliability
Team OptiGen from Duke University
Entry: OptiGen-State of the Art Power Generation Dispatch
Team ClimateWatt from Rice University
Entry: MASTERRI: Making Electric Grids Happy & Resilient
Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management
Team EarthFlow AI from Stanford University
Entry: EarthFlow AI: Accelerating Subsurface Clean Energy
Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains
Team COMPScan from Texas A&M University
Entry: COMPScan: Saving Money in the Air
Office of Nuclear Energy
Team Molten Salt Consulting from Snow College
Entry: Molten Salt Consulting Inc.
Solar Energy Technologies Office:
Team Agrivoltaic Design Studio from Cornell University
Entry: Agrivoltaic Design Studio
Water Power Technologies Office
Team KelpNext from the University of Michigan
Entry: KelpNext
Congratulations to all of the competing teams on their accomplishments throughout EnergyTech UP! And don’t forget that next year’s competition will be underway soon—check back here to stay up to date on how to get involved.
The prize’s 28 Regional and Technology Bonus Prize Finalists will be presenting their innovative ideas for commercializing a promising energy technology to a panel of industry judges on Monday, April 15, during the Energy Thought Summit in Austin, Texas. This year, teams can win any prizes they’re eligible for—not just for the categories in which they were named finalists!
Anyone attending the conference is invited to attend the National Pitch Event—then hear the big winner announcement at that evening’s closing event! Not attending? Access the event livestream and complete event schedule on the EnergyTech UP 2024 National Pitch Event page. And be sure to check HeroX after the event to catch up on which teams earned National Winner titles and cash prizes.
The final event of the EnergyTech University Prize 2024 is happening April 15 at Zpryme’s Energy Thought Summit (ETS) in Austin, Texas! Learn more about the National Pitch Event, including the student pitch order, what students will win, and how to livestream the event.
During the National Pitch Event, the competition’s 15 Regional and 13 Bonus Prize Finalists will present their innovative energy-focused business pitches to a panel of industry judges in the hopes of taking home winner status and a cash prize.
At the conclusion of the pitches, three National Winners will be selected, and 13 Bonus Prize Winners will be announced.
Student teams can win any of the prizes they’re eligible for—in other words, a Bonus Prize Finalist could become a National Winner, or a Regional Finalist could take home a Bonus Prize. Additionally, students are eligible to win more than one prize.
Regardless of the outcome, the finalist teams gain valuable experience during their time at ETS. The conference offers key networking opportunities, exposure to many great educational sessions, the chance to practice pitching in front of their peers, and so much more.
Faculty, don’t forget the Faculty Track Implement Phase deadline is coming up April 5 at 11:59 p.m. ET! Whether or not you previously applied to the Faculty Explorer phase, and whether or not you were selected as a Faculty Explorer, all eligible faculty members are welcome to enter their proposals to the final competition phase. Prior submission or selection is not a pre-requisite or barrier.
Proposals should include how the proposed topic could be integrated into student activities along with a letter or letters of support signed by the relevant department chair or administrator such as an associate dean, dean, provost, or vice provost. The implementation plan submitted as part of this phase should include a timeline for implementation at the competitor’s home institution, and faculty should indicate if implementation is possible in the 2024/2025 academic year.
Up to eight faculty competitor teams will be identified as winners, earning the following prizes:
1st place: $25,000
2nd place: $15,000
3rd place: $10,000
Runners up (five in total): $2,000
To support faculty, we have hosted several training sessions. The recordings are available for review:
Additionally, the Office of Technology Transitions will host an Office Hours session for faculty on Friday, March 29, at 2 p.m. ET. Register here.
Important update: The rules indicate that faculty winners will be announced the week of April 15 in conjunction with Zpryme’s Energy Thought Summit, where student presentations will take place at the EnergyTech UP National Pitch Event. The faculty winner announcement will now occur the week of April 22. This does not impact the submission deadline.
If you have any questions around the Implement Phase submission, please reach out to . Don’t forget to upload your submission by 11:59 p.m. ET. Prize administrators highly recommend uploading your submission early to avoid any technical difficulties.
We look forward to seeing the energy entrepreneurship education implementation plans submitted by faculty soon!
